Our Mission Statement
The Thornden Park Association (TPA) promotes increased community use of Thornden Park by restoring, revitalizing, and advocating for the park while maintaining its historic integrity.

About Us

The Thornden Park Association is a not-for-profit corporation organized under the laws of the State of New York. The Thornden Park Association was founded in 1983 to advocate for, restore and revitalize Thornden Park, a seventy-six acre historic landscape, situated within the complex and diverse University Neighborhood.

The end of 2014 saw the completion of renovations to a Thornden landmark, as contractors finished installation of the Elon P. Stewart Standpipe's new roof.

The extensive renovation project was carried out over the course of a year and cost $2.85 million.

A Post-Standard staff photographer captured some exciting shots of the installation of the new roof, which can be viewed here.

Congrats and Thanks

This summer has been quite rainy. Perfect weather for weeds
to grow strong and healthy. Most gardeners would agree, especially members of
the Syracuse Rose Society, who have a herculean job of keeping all the raised
beds in the E. M. Mills Rose Garden free of weeds. To the rescue, on Friday,
July 18, came 14 young, energetic, hardworking students from Syracuse
University (aka The Weed Killers.”)

These students, who are part of the
federally funded TRIO program, donated two hours of their busy summer residency
to help weed one entire quadrant of the garden. They were joined by their
supervisors, two members of the Syracuse Rose Society, two students from ESF
and four members of The Thornden Park Association. The pile of weeds in front
of the group is the result of forty hours of labor! We are so grateful to these
students for their assistance. They made Syracuse a better place!

"Love hurts, love scars, love wounds, and mars." Twelfth Night contains
a classic romantic triangle: Count Orsino loves Olivia, who is
infatuated with Cesario/Viola, who pines for Orsino. Concurrently,
Olivia's steward Malvolio and Sir Andrew Aguecheek each pursue Olivia,
while she in turn seeks out Sebastian, whom she mistakes for Cesario,
who is really Viola.

No one is truly insane in Twelfth Night,
but a current of zaniness pervades the action of the play. Separated
twins, various disguises, and impediments to love conspire to make Twelfth Night seem like an episode of Frasier written by Shakespeare.
Until the final resolution, one feels as if the pur-suit of romantic
relationships does more harm than good. But true love sees the soul.
True love recognizes the noble inner qualities of the beloved as well as
the outward. The play provided Shakespeare with
an opportunity to address (and sometimes mock) concerns raised by the
Puritan theater critics of his time. Just as in our own enlightened age, Elizabethan theater critics anointed themselves the keepers of public taste and propriety and Shakespeare resented being judged. Twelfth Night was
his opportunity to explore conventional wisdom regarding gender,
sexuality, class identity, and morality. Thus, the play's main
antagonist Malvolio is shut out from all the fun and gaiety ultimately
expressed by the other characters. Someone has to be the butt of the
jokes while Love conquers all.

Six shows:

Friday, August 8th: 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, August 9th: 5:30 p.m.

Sunday, August 10th: 2:00 p.m.

Friday, August 15th: 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, August 16th: 5:30 p.m.

Sunday, August 17th: 2:00 p.m.

Discovery Camp

For nine years, the Thornden Park Association has co-sponsored Discovery Camps in Thornden
Park’s Carriage House.

From 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., children explore Thornden Park’s many features enjoying outdoor
activities, which integrate, art, science, and language arts. Weather permitting, swimming will be included in their afternoon activities. Over the years this program has
grown exponentially.

In collaboration with The New School, we now offer five
weeks of camp in July and August. This year our camps were fully enrolled by
March and will serve 60+ children. Registration fees for 2014 was $90. Scholarships
are available. If you would like to receive advance notice for the 2015 season,
email miranda@twcny.rr.com

This a pay-what-you-can show where we collect a donation at intermission. Food is available for sale at the concession stand from the Thornden Park Bulldogs and ice cream from Gannon's Isle.

Show dates are: June 20-29, 2014

Friday: 5:30 p.m.

Saturday: 5:30 p.m.

Sunday: 2:00 p.m.

Weeping Beech Bench Raffle

Want to win this stunning bench, created by artist John Noviasky?

We will be selling raffle tickets for the next two months. You can purchase them at our Garden Tour table on June 15 and at our booth at the Westcott Cultural Fair. The winner will be drawn at the Westcott Cultural Fair. Tickets will cost $5 or 3 tickets for $12.

2014
Chili Bowl Festival a Great Success

The 2014 Thornden Park Chili
Bowl Festival was held on February 8th, and was a huge success.
The event cleared a profit of over $2,100, making it the 4th-most
successful CBF since the event’s inception about 20 years ago. The cold but sunny weather helped bring out a
large crowd that packed the Field House for the duration of the event. Two television stations sent camera crews and
aired stories that evening, highlighting the event and the Thornden Park
Association’s work to improve the park and encourage its use.

Thanks, also, to our generous members who
bought raffle tickets & made donations!

Again this year, the CNY
Disc Golf Association held their “Ice Bowl” tournament on the same day as
CBF. The two events make a great pairing
showing how the park can be used throughout the year and not just in the warmer
months.

Weeping Beech

In March 2013, Thornden Park lost one of its landmarks as a wind storm toppled the park's 170-year-old weeping beech tree.

We are also seeking five to ten local artists who would be interested in creating a piece of art from the wood of this beech tree and donating it to the Park Association.

In lieu of payment, the artist would receive some of the wood for his or her personal use. The donated art will be raffled by the Thornden Park Association at the Chili Bowl Festival, the Garden Tours, and the Westcott Cultural Fair.

Cricket, Anyone?

Upstate Cricket Club
Background information
Established in 2011, we are a strong group of motivated
individuals from different backgrounds. Most of the enthusiasts are graduate
(PhD and masters) and medical students at SUNY Upstate Medical University, but
we also have post-doctoral fellows, physicians, trainee doctors, physician’s
assistants at our behest. Even though cricket is traditionally a colonial game,
we have many American enthusiasts who play regularly. Thus we have good mix of
people not only from different educational backgrounds with both male and
female participants but people from different country of origin such as India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, England, USA, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Jamaica etc. Our professional commitments
permit us to play on the weekends. We manage a good 4-6 hours of play every
time. Recently we have upgraded our cricket equipment to meet the increase in
strength of players and the ever expanding enthusiasm.
Newer equipment and increasing number of enthusiasts have
brought newer challenges. We would love to play at a bigger field and lately we
have been playing at the Thornden park football field. However, the center of
the field (which is pivotal to our game) is uneven and needs regular
maintenance as far as the grass on the ground is concerned.
You can visit our facebook page: ‘Upstate Cricket Club’.

History of Thornden Shared

Susan Hardoby spoke about the history of Thornden Park and presented slides to the residents at The Oaks Residential Community at Menorah Park on July 7th. Some of the residents shared their remembrances of the park in earlier days, as they lived in the area back then. One resident said she had pictures of the many flower beds that inhabited the park in the forties or fifties. We are always interested in stories and pictures of the park and would love to hear and/or see them, so if you have any, please contact Susan. She also is willing to come speak at any gathering or meeting interested in learning about the history of the park. Call her at 445-1798.

In October 2008 Susan Hardoby presented the Park's historical slide show to the Women's Organization of DeWitt Community Church (and we thank them for their kind donation to help us continue our efforts in the park.) Please know that this presentation is free and we are more than happy to show it to your group. (We also have a video called Uncommon Ground, that we produced about the park.) Both are available to your community, church, garden or any other group or organization that may be interested in the history of the park and what a group can do to improve our wonderful public green spaces. Just give Susan a call at 445-1798 to schedule her in to your program. Thanks.

GARDEN TOURS: For the 21st year, the Thornden Park Association hosts tours of private gardens located in and around the Syracuse University neighborhood on Sunday, June 16th from 1 pm – 4 pm. RAIN OR SHINE! Don’t miss the opportunity to meet the creators of these unique gardens. $10.00 tickets will be on sale at the Field House in Thornden Park on the day of the tour from noon to 3 pm. (Enter the park at the E.M. Mills Rose Garden) Self-guided tours begin at 1 PM and end at 4 PM. A map highlighting the gardens, their location and history, will be provided with each ticket purchase.

GARDEN TOURS: For the 21st year, the Thornden Park Association hosts tours of private gardens located in and around the Syracuse University neighborhood on Sunday, June 16th from 1 pm – 4 pm. RAIN OR SHINE! Don’t miss the opportunity to meet the creators of these unique gardens. $10.00 tickets will be on sale at the Field House in Thornden Park on the day of the tour from noon to 3 pm. (Enter the park at the E.M. Mills Rose Garden) Self-guided tours begin at 1 PM and end at 4 PM. A map highlighting the gardens, their location and history, will be provided with each ticket purchase.

Syracuse Shakespeare
Festival
Rides a Wild and Wooly,
Two Gentlemen of Verona,
for FREE Shakespeare-in-the-Park
The Syracuse Shakespeare Festival’s August 2011, 9th
season, of FREE Shakespeare-in-the-Park, gallops off with a wild and wooly production, 1870s American
West style, of Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Bring your
partners, buckaroos, kin and neighborfolk to this FREE show in the beautiful
Thornden Park Amphitheatre. The
atmosphere is relaxed and friendly and you are encouraged to bring picnics and
beverages of your choice. Food
vendors such as John John’s Cooker,
specializing in barbecue, and Gannon’s
Isle, specializing in ice cream, will have their delicious fare available
for sale. Bring a few pieces of
gold or some silver certificates to buy some food or our vendors’ wares.

A Kids Area is available before and
during the show, providing balls, bubbles and surprises for kids 12 and
under. Musical guests will perform
before the show and at intermission.
Free parking is available for every show. Shuttle service is available on weekends.
For more info, go to www.syracuseshakespearefestival.org
OR call 315-476-1835